Back-to-School Lunchbox Notes From Marc Jacobs’s Interior Designer

The interior designer John Gachot has been responsible for decorating Marc Jacobs’s townhouse, the Tumblr founder David Karp’s Williamsburg apartment and the Smyth Hotel in Tribeca; he’s done interiors for the likes of Bottega Veneta, Gucci and Boucheron. He’s also a dedicated father: He and his wife and fellow designer, Christine, have two boys, Boris and Jackie, aged 13 and 8, who are very close despite wildly different personalities. “Where Boris is our mild-mannered peace, love and rock ‘n’ roll child, Jackie is a powerhouse of ambition and energy,” Gachot says. “He recently turned our kitchen stools into a sculpture called Jackefeller Center, and would get to work on time each day.”

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John and Christine Gachot with their son Jackie.CreditJulien Capmeil

For years, Gachot created doodles to tuck into the boys’ lunchboxes. “It was pretty cool when the other kids started sitting next to Boris to see what would come out that day,” he says. “The lunchroom team at PS 41 would send me emails; I got a lot of ‘You’ve got to be kidding me, thanks!’ from parents.” (He notes that while Boris was always “delighted to receive them,” Jackie “thought he was too cool to get a note in his lunchbox, even in kindergarten.”) To celebrate the back-to-school season, he created 13 illustrated notes for T; you can click through them in the slideshow above or download a printable PDF version here. For kids who aren’t thrilled about the end of summer vacation, we recommend starting with Gachot’s guide to New York public schools’ days off.